


pull my heartstrings over the phone

by boombashkas



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Established Jasico, Established Percico, Fluff and Angst, Jercy-centric, M/M, Phone Call, Pining, Polyamory, Threesome - M/M/M, cross-posted from my tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-25
Updated: 2015-05-25
Packaged: 2018-04-01 03:55:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4004929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boombashkas/pseuds/boombashkas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Percy always finds a way to contact Nico – by phone, Iris Message, or an impressive improvised letter system which may or may not involve enchanted chickens – so they talk on an almost-daily basis. On the good days, Jason gets to join in too.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	pull my heartstrings over the phone

Washing the dishes is slow work when they’re sticky with the oatmeal Nico had decided to have a few hours ago for some indiscernible reason, but it doesn’t help that Jason keeps pausing every few minutes, his head cocked in the direction of the bedroom, eyes straying to the photographs stuck to the refrigerator door. 

He can’t help it. His heart feels caught in a fishhook, each painful tug from the bedroom pulling him closer. By this point, he’s not even sure whether it’s Nico or Percy holding the line, although he suspects it’s probably both.

Thankfully, the last dish is done ten minutes later, and Jason hurries to the bedroom – only to find Nico already passed out on the bed. His hand is next to his face, the cordless phone lying loosely in the circle of his fingers. When Jason brushes a few strands of Nico’s hair out of his eyes, he fidgets in his sleep and smacks his lips like he’s just tasted something particularly delicious. 

Smiling, Jason plucks the phone out of Nico’s hand. He’s disappointed he was too late and Percy’s already hung up, sure, but there’s always tomorrow. The new cell phones Leo had fashioned for demigods on quests had been godsend (not literally). They couldn’t use them as often as they liked, but once they did, they could hold long conversations without worrying about monsters hunting them. 

Percy always finds a way to contact Nico – by phone, Iris Message, or an impressive improvised letter system which may or may not involve enchanted chickens – so they talk on an almost-daily basis. On the good days, Jason gets to join in too.

He presses a light kiss to Nico’s temple and pushes off the bed to put the phone back in its cradle when he hears a muffled ‘hello?’

Percy hadn’t hung up. The call is still on, its timer blinking up at Jason: 24:29 and counting.

_The phone bill is going to be hell this month_ , Jason thinks.

And, at the same time: _Percy._

Trying to ignore the suddenly loud drumbeats of his heart, he presses the phone to his ear. “Percy?” he whispers.

“Jason.” He sounds like he’s smiling wide. Jason can imagine it perfectly. “Hi.”

“Hey. So Nico’s out.”

He laughs. “Yeah, I could hear him making those tiny snuffling noises. He’s so stupid, he doesn’t even know how to snore.”

“And thank Zeus for it,” Jason answers, moving out of the bedroom and back into the kitchen, “You snoring is bad enough. If both of you did it, I wouldn’t get any sleep at all.”

“At least you wouldn’t need an alarm clock anymore.”

Jason snorts. “Like I need it now anyway.”

Percy laughs – a low, breathy sound. He’s probably trying to avoid waking Frank and Piper up too.

“So,” Jason says, leaning against the counter. “How’s the quest going?”

Percy sighs. Jason can sense the mood change that comes with it. “Fine. I think. I don’t know, it feels like we have zero direction, and even Piper’s dagger isn’t any help. I think – I think this might take longer than we thought.”

Jason’s stomach drops like an anchor. “Oh,” he says, trying to keep the disappointment out of his voice. “How much longer?”

“A few days, maybe a week. At least we have a pretty flexible deadline. And once we figure out what exactly it is we’re supposed to be doing, hopefully everything will move faster.”

The frustration carries over the phone, although Percy’s obviously trying to sound optimistic about it. Jason decides not to comment on it. “Have you told Nico?” he asks instead.

There’s a pause. “No,” Percy admits quietly, “I wasn’t sure how to bring it up, and before I knew it, he was asleep.”

“He’s going to be really disappointed.” Jason reaches out and runs the pad of his thumb on one of the photographs attached to the fridge: the two of them at the beach with Nico between them, tucked under their arms, and a messy sandcastle between Percy’s feet. It’s one of Jason’s favorite pictures, even though Hazel didn’t even focus the lens properly when she took it.

“He was really looking forward to seeing you this weekend,” he continues. He doesn’t mention that he was as well, just like always.

“I know. Me too.” His voice is small and sad, nothing like the bright grin Percy wears in the photo. “I really miss him.”

“No doubt.” Jason’s eyes slip to the next photo, one he took: Percy smacking a sound kiss onto a vaguely amused Nico’s cheek. “Don’t worry about telling him, I will.”

“Okay.” He can hear Percy take a deep breath. “In fact,” he says quietly, “I really miss you too.”

Jason’s shoulders sag as he releases tension he wasn’t aware he’d been holding in. He rests his forehead against the fridge, but doesn’t answer.

If someone had told him two months ago that he’d fall in love with his boyfriend’s boyfriend, he’d have laughed in their face, probably asked them what they were on. Not because it was so unthinkable for him to fall in love with a boy – after all, he loved Nico with all his heart. Not even because he didn’t think it was possible to be in love with two people at once, because Nico did it in front of him every day. 

It was because his boyfriend’s boyfriend just so happened to be Percy Jackson, his best friend, his bro, the guy he joked about having a platonic man-crush on. It was _Percy_. They bantered back-and-forth how pretty the other’s eyes were, and what they should wear on their next date, but they were all inside jokes. The only reason they even shared an apartment and a bed and lives was because of Nico. 

He had most definitely not expected to be having these feelings for him, the ones that make him stretch an arm over Nico to the other side of the bed while they sleep, the ones that make him hold on to Percy a few seconds longer when they hug, the ones that make him rush into the bedroom whenever Percy calls Nico, that make him cradle the phone close to his cheek and Percy’s words close to his heart.

Yet, here he is, and the strange thing is that he doesn’t deny it. He knows his feelings as they are and accepts them. All he wants is to build something from them, if Percy and Nico let him. 

Nothing about this is strange or foreign; it’s falling in love with his best friend again. He has fallen once before – this time, he hadn’t even felt the push.

He’s closed his eyes without realizing it. The image of Percy and Nico is imprinted on the backs of his eyelids.

“Come home quick, okay?” he says. “You’ve been away for too long.”

Percy doesn’t even comment on Jason’s long pause. “I’ve been away for five days.”

“Exactly.”

He laughs low, soft. “I will, as soon as I can. Take care of him while I’m gone.”

“Okay.”

“And – and yourself.”

Jason’s heart clenches. “Okay.”

“And stock up on blue food coloring, there’s none of it for the food here in the great wild and I’m experiencing withdrawal symptoms.”

“You’re in New York City.”

“Your point is?”

Jason laughs, lifting his head. “Blue food coloring. Check.”

“And Jason?”

“Yes, Percy?”

He’s silent for so long, Jason worries there’s something wrong with the phone’s connection. Just when he’s about to take the phone away to look at the screen, he hears Percy exhale, and then, “I love him.”

Jason isn’t sure what it is – maybe the long pause, maybe the low, almost uncharacteristically shy quality of his voice, or the way he can tell Percy’s holding his breath right after he says it – but Jason wonders if Percy’s really referring to Nico. 

It surprises him that after the weeks of manic butterflies in his stomach and flaming heat in his cheeks, it doesn’t feel like fireworks. He’s surprised by how _not_ surprised he is, like he knew all along.

Or maybe the fireworks are yet to come.

“Yeah,” he says, feeling giddiness and contentment and desire all at once. “He loves you too.”

~*~

When he finally buries himself under the covers, taking Nico’s warm body in his arms and snuggling close, Nico rolls over, mumbles something under his breath and then blinks sleepily at Jason, his eyelashes entangling as he does.

“Hi,” Jason whispers, running a thumb over his cheekbone. “Sorry if I woke you. Go back to sleep.”

Nico hums and presses his face into Jason’s shoulder. “Talking to Percy?” he mumbles almost intelligibly.

“Yeah.”

Nico lifts his head, squints at his boyfriend. “Did you tell him?” 

Jason laughs, pulling him even closer. Figures that would be what he asks in the middle of the night. “In a way,” he answers.

“You’re going to have to be clearer than that,” Nico yawns. He pulls the sheets higher around his shoulders. His face disappears underneath Jason’s chin. “He’s kinda stupid about this stuff.”

“I know. I’ll tell him.” Jason looks across the bed at Percy’s pillow. “As soon as he comes home to us.” 

**Author's Note:**

> my first fic after a looong hiatus. let me know if you liked this and if you want to see a sequel! my tumblr is boombashkas <3


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